Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council supported Mrs X with direct payments. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide information and support after it agreed for her to receive direct payments. Said it never explained client contributions, or how she could use the direct payments. Said the Council had stopped the direct payments, because she was not making her care contributions. She said her client contributions far exceed what she could afford.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X started to receive direct payments at the start of 2023. The Council wrote to Mrs X following the start of the direct payment, explaining she needed to make client contributions into her direct payment account. Following a complaint, the Council wrote to her at the end of 2023, explaining the client contribution.
6. In the Council’s most recent complaint response, it confirmed Mrs X had signed a direct payment agreement in 2023 which explained the expectation that recipients need to pay their assessed contribution. The Council acknowledged Mrs X may have needed clearer guidance to help her manage the direct payment process more confidently.
7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint the Council did not provide sufficient information about direct payments. The Council has provided Mrs X information about the direct payments throughout the course of the agreement. Although I appreciate she may have needed further guidance, there is nothing to suggest she did not know about the need to make client contributions. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
8. We will also not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that she could not afford her client contributions. In the Council’s financial assessments, it considered Mrs X’s disability related expenditure and correctly applied the minimum income guarantee (MIG) set by the Government. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council calculated her contributions to justify our involvement.
9. Mrs X decided to end her direct payment as she struggled to afford her client contributions. That is a decision she is entitled to make.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman